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Alliance War - Part 2
If you haven't read the first part, read it here. ______ Part 4: All uphill from here (2 hours after initial attack, first contingent) 2nd Lieutenant Falmanns looked over the battlefield. He was currently leading 4 squads of his fellow Guardsmen against these damned Necrons but it was hard to think of it that way. He was fully aware that what he was doing was serving as a bullet shield for the Knights behind, shooting at the Necrons with their massive guns. Of his troops, only the 2 heavy weapons squads were doing anything noticeable to the Necrons with their Heavy Bolter and Lascannon. Still, not everything was terrible he reasoned. He had been fighting since the beginning of this war, and despite what his superiors told him, the Necrons didn't seem to be putting up much more of a fight here than they had been on the previous Tomb Worlds. Being from the regiment raised from the Angels of Rebirth own home world Herleven, Falmanns had expected to work alongside the Astartes and was disappointed to find it was planned otherwise, As the First contingent continued to advance, Lieutenant Falmanns wondered if the other contingents were doing as well. "Probably doing better than us", he told himself, "after all, they are lead by Space Marines themselves. There isn't anything in Galaxy that can put up a better fight than them." (7800 Km away, second contingent) The battle was not going well. Even with the entirety of an Astartes Chapter fighting furiously they were losing ground. Beor Achlin gazed around the battlefield as best he could with one uncovered eye. The problem was the Abyss Gazers were not used to fighting Necrons. Against Deamons, the polar opposites of the Necrons, they were unmatched and even the random changes to the battlefield that Chaos brought could not sway them. Yet the unflinching, permanent nature of the Necron Monoliths defeated them. Currently Beor stood next to his good friend Arthan, Chapter Master of the Abyss Gazers. Beor was a tall man, and well built, but next to the armored bulk of Terminator Armor he felt vulnerable despite being easily the most powerful psyker in the sector. Only Lord Harbinger Koios Vivifica of the Angels of Rebirth chapter could match him (and even then that was only while Beor was wearing his power restraining eye patch). He spoke up to Arthan, "Emperor's throne Arthan, what are you waiting for?" The armored giant looked down. "What do you mean?" The vox grill on the helmet rumbled. "What in Dorn's name are you doing? Keeping half the forces in reserve, when clearly those fighting need to be reinforced" Beor gestured at the battlefield in front of them, what Astartes and Guard were there were getting pummeled mercilessly be the Necrons summoned up by the Monoliths. Before answering his question, Arthan turned to his bodyguards, "the fortifications are ready, order a full retreat". Turning back to Beor he answered, "Preparing a trap". Out on the battlefield, what Astartes and Guardsmen were still alive began to flee back towards where Beor and Arthan stood with the rest of the Guardsmen and Abyss Gazers were. Looking more closely at what the Abyss Gazers had been up to Beor noticed that they had setup a clever series of fortifications that would allow them to subtly funnel the Necrons into a series of killzones. Arthan spoke again, "I will lead the reinforcements myself. Beor, I'm assigning two of my Guard to protect you. Get as near as you need once we engage the enemy and back us up with your power. I give you permission to use your full power until we bring down those Monoliths." he held a massive armored hand out to Beor. Beor reached out and shook it as best he could. "Fight well, old friend," Beor told him. Soon Arthan was gone, with his Honor Guard right behind him, save two who stood to either side of Beor. Well," Beor told them, "lets go let those abominations know what it means to fight the Servants of the Emperor. (8957 Km, third contingent) The Eldar Enel of the Fire Dragons checked the temperature of his Fusion Gun. He had been skeptical initially whether these Mon Keigh were strong enough to get him and his fellow Fire Dragons close enough to the Necrons to use their weapons, but these 'space marines', as they were called, seemed to revel in close combat to the point of insanity. Only such a primitive race would have 2 groups of soldiers working together that don't seem to speak the same language. Still, he admitted to himself, while several of these greater Mon Keigh warriors died in the charge, it was nonetheless effective at clearing a path for them. As he received new instructions from his exarch they were interrupted by powerful psychic reverberations. Enel froze for a second, which nearly cost him his life as a Necron fired at him. He had never felt anything like this, even from his Craftworlds Farseers. From the almost wild feel of the reverberations they definitely weren't from an Eldar, could it possibly be one of the Mon Keigh? Enel shuddered faintly, praying to Khaine that this Mon Keigh could control such power, otherwise the whole planet might be destroyed or lost to the Warp. (first contingent) The first thing Lieutenant Falmanns knew about Beor was when a nearby Sanctioned Pysker started screaming. The poor psyker was only a Epsilon grade psyker and wasn't used to being on the same planet as an Alpha Grade that wasn't the Emperor. (In orbit of the planet) As he stood on the Bridge of his Battle Barge Lord Harbinger Koios glanced over as one of his Astropaths keeled over. As a psyker himself Koios also felt Beor unleashing his full psychic power, but was better able to weather the backlash as he was only somewhat weaker as a Beta Grade psyker. He hardly had time to think about it however as the War for the Planet's orbit raged around his Barge. (second contingement) Beor, by contrast to all the other psykers felt great. Not only did he now have depth perception, but his mind seemed to extend vastly as well. He could feel the warp presence of every soul on the planet, from the powerful souls of Sanctioned pyskers and Eldar, to the weak souls of the regular Humans, to the strangely unchanging souls of the Abyss Gazers. His mind was so vast and powerful there was almost no room for sanity. What was he doing on this world? Gravity suddenly seemed unimportant to him and he began to levitate off the ground. Whispers clawed at the edge of his brain and he tried to ignore them, he knew they were dangerous and made it difficult to hear what the unchanging Abyss Gazers near him were saying. Angrily he willed with all his might to push the whispers out of his brain and shout down to the Astartes to repeat what he had said, faintly registering what sounded like laughter. Was that him? Straining he heard the Space Marine say, "use...Prowess...cron Monoliths... ter Master Arthan," while pointing down towards the battle. Looking Beor saw his friend and superior Chapter Master Arthan, leading the second wave of troops against the soulless Necrons. Even though the Necrons were getting bogged down by the fortifications and destroyed en mass by the accurate artillery fire, the giant floating Monoliths simply summoned more. Already they were summoning the Necron soldiers faster than the Imperial Forces could kill them. Soon, even with the reinforcements, the attacking Guardsmen and Astartes would be overrun and the nearest Monoliths were getting close enough to attack directly. Beor laughed aloud again, a haunting, almost insane sound that chilled all those guardsmen who heard it. This was all they wanted of him? At his finger tips was the power to break mountains and maybe even worlds, and this was all they wanted. Laughing once more Beor waved a hand towards the Monoliths and half a dozen of them suddenly shot up a thousand meters before another gesture sent them rocketing down like meteors into the other Monoliths. Even as he fought to regain his sanity he crushed what few that remained like eggs with his mind. Almost immediately every Necron construct within a hundred kilometers left what they were doing and began to fight desperately to reach the Psyker laying waste to their forces but Beor did not care. Let them come, the Soulless ones offend his senses, and their coming got rid of his need to seek them out. While the Abyss Gazers worked on breaking open the doors to one of the Tomb Worlds Orbital Defenses control room the forces of the Astra Militum watched in awe as Beor obliterated the Necron forces. Many were crushed into flat puddles or set alight with eldritch fire, Necrodermis struggling to repair the unnatural damage inflicted from the warp. Some Necrons were consumed by psychic storms summoned up by Beor, throwing them into the Immaterium. A Necron Night Shroud swooped down from the sky, firing on Beor with a Death Sphere bomb which was causally thrown into space by the Psyker before he banished the Necron craft to the Warp. Suddenly a armored hand grabbed Beor's Ankle and dragged him down. He just managed to realize it was the Abyss Gazers before the eye patch was forced back over his eye. Instantly all the psychic noise stopped and he felt as if half his soul disappeared as the psychic runes on the eye patch suppressed his power. "I'm all right, I'm all right," he gasped at the Astartes holding him. He always hated putting the eye patch on, it made him feel like he had forgotten how to breath. "Sorry Beor," The one on the right said, "its been a half hour. You know the rules, no matter the circumstances, after a half hour you need to stop." You did well though," the other marine offered, "We were able to smash through the whole army with your help." A Thunderhawk touched down nearby. "We managed to destroy the control room so now we're pulling out to go help the third contingent while the Guard go help the first. Apparently the Angels and the Thanes have been having a little trouble on their ends." he told Beor while ushering him onto the Aircraft. (Orbit of the Tomb World) The Orbital war was over with the last of the defending Necron ship being blasted into oblivion by Nova Cannon fire. Koios looked over the reports streaming in, dozens every minute. From what he gathered the second contingent had succeeded in their mission and the third was getting close thanks to the support from the Abyss Gazers. Only the first was still having difficulty as they had encountered an unexpectedly large Necron tank force. With the Orbital War won there was less need for the Eldar Fighters so Koios signaled them on the vox to begin strafing runs to support the first contingent. Once that was over he approached the Navigator. Something about Beor's power had left him worried. "Navigator Justin," he called, "What is the state of the Warp?" The Navigator uncovered his third eye and gazed around briefly. "Troubled my lord," The Navigator replied, "the usage of the psyker Beor's power has stirred things and drawn the attentions of many warp presences. It will be unsafe to engage in warp travel for a few days." (First contingent) The lieutenant swore fluently under his breath, things were worse than ever. They had just started making some progress when these Necron tanks had shown up and worse, his heavy bolter squad had run out of ammo. He looked over at his communications officer, "can you get anyone on there yet?" He shouted over the din of battle. "Nothing sir," the man shouted back, "the enemy must be doing something to interfere with comms!" The lieutenant swore again as he gazed around the battlefield. Only the Lascannon was doing anything significant, the commissar was dead, struck by shrapnel to the head, and they couldn't even call in for fire support. Their position would be overrun in a matter of minutes at best unless he could think of something. Suddenly he noticed something strange, a Necron standing taller than those around him. He was holding a large staff and appeared to be commanding the Necrons around him. That must be their commander, he thought to himself, our platoon is doomed, but if we can take him out the rest of the contingent might have a chance. "Sgt.Rikeman!" He shouted. "Yes sir," The Sargent came hurrying up. Do you still have that melta charge you and your boys found?" Lieutenant Falmanns asked him. "Right here sir," the Sargent responded, holding the round explosive up. The Lieutenant took it, bracing himself for what he had to do. Hoisting the Power sword he had taken from the commissar's corpse he turned to his men. "ATTENTION!" He bellowed with all his might above the din of battle. All those men not currently engaging the Necrons turned to face him. "Get yourselves ready men, we are going to charge the Necrons position and take out their commander!" He pointed at where the Necron Lord stood. Many of the men looked terrified. "Sir," One guardsman cried desperately, "We're barely holding on here and you want us to charge directly at them? They'll just kill us all!" "You're absolutely right," the Lieutenant told him. Many of the men around him looked stricken but Falmanns wasn't done yet. "Sooner or later, we'll all die and meet the Emperor, but I plan on meeting him proudly, having accomplished my duty, not in shame, sniveling from cowardice!" He could see he was getting through to the men and pushed further, "This day we will win such glories that the Astartes on this world today will respect us and the other guard envy us! But only if we stand and fight for it!" He looked around, his sword raised, "Now I ask you, will you share this glory with me?!" Nearly all the men shout the answer, fraught with fear and hope, "YES!" Lieutentant jumped down from his position to stand in the midst of them, "Then Charge! For Emperor and Glory!" He cried leading the charge himself, Power Sword in one hand, melta charge in the other. Echoing his cry the Guardsmen and women followed, using the lascannon and what grenades they had left to clear a path. At the front Lieutenant Falmanns struggled, slicing at the Necrons with his Power Sword, keenly aware of the men dying all around him on his orders. As he got near the Necron Lord, he reached down to prime the melta charge. He had just managed it when there was a flash of green light and a strange feeling in his midsection. Looking down he saw a gaping hole straight through his gut that had gone right through him. As he collapsed he managed to cry out weakly, "Somebody. Anybody, the charge... must get it to him." As the light started to fade he dimly saw a guardswoman grab the Melta Charge from his hand and fling it straight into the Necron Lord's chest. There was an explosion of heat and light, and when it was over there was no trace of the Necron. Lieutenant Falmanns smiled as he closed his eyes, content now that the Emperor would not find him lacking. Part 5: Respite (4 hours after Tomb World destruction) The Tomb World was dead, the Eldar super weapons having done their work. Lord Harbinger Koios sat atop his throne in his Battle-Barges main hall surrounded by the leaders of the crusade as well as those who had won honors in the battle. As they would not be able to make a jump till the Warp settled in a few days Koios had decided now was the best time to deal with granting honors and promotions in order to keep morale up. He read from a great scroll the list of names and honors given to astartes and mortals alike. The next name on the list intrigued him. "Private Luithian of the Herleven 16th Regiment," He read aloud. A Guardswoman stepped forward, battered and missing her right arm from where the melta charge had burned it off when she didn't dive away quite quickly enough. "Yes Lord?" She stood at attention, only able to give half the Aquila salute. "It says here," Koios spoke to her, reading from the parchment, "that you and you're platoon destroyed the Necron Lord of this Tomb World through the Brave sacrifice of the deceased Lieutenant Falmanns and other members of your platoon." He looked up at her, "Given the severe losses of your regiment, you will not be expected to continue the fight in this crusade and will return to Herleven with honors. Each member of your platoon will be awarded the Steel Aquila for your great courage in battle." "Thank you Lord," Private Luithian said, bowing in gratitude to the Astartes. "For your personal valor in delivering the Explosive after the lieutenant fell, we have decided to grant you his rank of 2nd Lieutenant." Koios gestured and one of his astartes handed her the power sword that had been recovered from 2nd Lieutenant Falmanns body. "You are dismissed to the infirmary." The new Lieutenant clutched the Power sword with her remaining arm as she bowed before turning and leaving. Chapter Master Makil of the Iron Sights approached Koios to speak softly with him, interrupting the honors. "Why are you giving so many honors to a mere guardsman cousin?" Koios spoke back just as soft so as not to be heard by others. "Well, aside from the fact that a handful of Guardsmen were able to destroy a Necron Lord with a half baked suicide plan?" Koios told him semi-sarcastically. "Once word spreads to the rest of the Astra Militum forces morale will soar. Tales of a small group able to change the course of a battle with nothing more than the Grace of the Emperor? While we are fighting battles of the body we must needs not forget the battles of the heart and mind." Koios smiled to himself, "I hear already that several of the Ecclesiarchy representatives with us have declared it a miracle wrought by faith in the God-Emperor and Morales higher than it has been since the start of the Campaign." Makil looked reassured, "and I guess the reason you excused them from battle," he whispered as moved away, "is because miracles rarely strike the same place twice." Part 6: A chance encounter (13 days later) Admiral Hador sat in the seat of his flagship, Spirit of vigil, planning the next battle. Thanks to the Eldar's own craft, relatively few of the Void ships under his command had been outright destroyed, but many were becoming increasingly damaged. He had already had to send over 15 ships to Forge Worlds to be repaired and if this kept up, most of his ships would be either destroyed or crippled before the rest of the Battlefleet caught up. the rapid pace the Lord Harbinger was setting was making it difficult for reinforcement to reach them and they still had 2 Core Tomb Worlds to go before they could safely attack the Crown World, which was supposed to be even worse. His Navigator approached him, a relatively young lady, pretty but for the third eye on her forehead. "Admiral Hador," she said, addressing him as if she were a fellow admiral. "We are approaching our destination in roughly a minute and a half at our current speed." "Excellent," Hador responded before informing the crew. He turned on the ship wide intercom, "Attention crew. Prepare to translate back into real space, gunners to position as we don't know whats awaiting us. Be sure to thank the God-Emperor for our safe arrival. That is all." A minute later he leaned forward slightly as the ship started to translate out of the warp. As the view outside the bridge began to blur he braced himself for the fleet of Necron ships surely waiting for their arrival just like the last 5 Tomb Worlds. Then the view settled and he found himself looking upon the ruins of a planet that seemed to have been smashed to pieces. Turning on the vox to the scanner crews he shouted, "What the hell happened here!" A reply came back shortly from the scanner room. "Something blew that planet apart, and recently too." The scanner room reported back, "Looks like it was destroyed through repeated extremely high velocity impacts, like a group of planetoids hit it one after another." There was a pause, "This wasn't natural Admiral. Something dragged a bunch of Large asteroids, likely all in the 300-400 kilometer range, and threw them at the planet till it was nothing more than an asteroid field itself." Admiral Hador wasn't satisfied with that, "Well keep on scanning until you know what threw them." He turned off the intercom and turned to the Vox crews. "Get me 2 channels, one to the rest of the battlefleet and one to the other command vessels and do it fast." "Right away sir," one of the communications officers responded. 5 minutes later there were 2 separate channels open on his holo vid. On the command channel the various commanders were discussing what might have done this, while on the Battlefleet channel they were still checking in as they translated into the system. Sudden a light popped up, the scanner room had something to report. "Well what is it," Hador demanded. "We've picked up a unknown fleet on the other side of the planet remains." The scanner officer responded excitedly, "We managed to get a good image and none of the ships match any known vessels. Shall we send to the image sir?" "Yes," Hador responded, "and be sure to send it to all the other command vessels as well." Soon all the various commanders were discussing the strange vessels. Suddenly the third captain of the Ashen Thanes spoke up. "I've got it! I saw them 40 years back over Tarenau, they're Ferrobel ships, and that large one looks like their flagship, the Adamantine Giant." A data log popped up with the relevant data on the Xenos. "It says here they mostly keep to themselves," The Knight commander put in, "What the hell are they doing out here shattering Necron Tomb Worlds?" Lord Harbinger Koios soon had the answer. "The Eldar just voxed me," he told them, "apparently the Tomb World has been launching raids against Ferrobel Worlds for some reason, so they gathered a fleet to destroy it." Chapter Master Makil looked worried, "As far as I'm concerned the Ferrobel as just as much Xenos as the Necrons. Should we engage their fleet?" Admiral Hador quickly shot him down. "No Chapter Master, the battlefleets already in poor condition and we can't afford a battle this large if we want to continue this crusade. In case you hadn't noticed this xenos fleet was powerful enough to destroy a powerful Tomb World and it's flagship is larger than the Unchanging Fortress." he Admiral continued, somewhat amazed at his own boldness, "I say we thank the Emperor we didn't have to fight this Tomb World and move on." Makil looked quite affronted at being addressed like such, but before he could respond the Lord Harbinger spoke again. "I'm of a mind like the Admiral," Koios spoke, "We still have the worst before us and we can't afford to give the Necrons any advantages." "We agree with the Harbinger," The artificial voice of the Adeptus Mechanicus Magos droned. "Pursuing pointless battles is illogical and wasteful." Both the Ashen Thanes and the Knights of House Maxhillain also sided with the Admiral. "We'll move on then," The Lord Harbinger decided. "Still, I can't help but wonder what the chances of this are." Part 7: Last Gathering (in orbit above the last Necron Core World) 2nd Lieutenant Luithain gazed out the window of the Infirmary of the Battleship she was on out at the battle in Orbit of the Tomb World. Her shoulder had nearly healed well enough for a Bionic arm to be attached. She was still amazed at her fortune. Having grown up on Herleven she had always heard stories of the Angels of Rebirth, but she had never expected to meet the Lord Harbinger himself. He had been just like the stories she had heard as a girl; Strong, Noble, and Compassionate, Old yet resembling his progenitor Sanguinius. All around the Vessel the battle raged. Though she was too inexperienced in Void Combat to tell, it was going badly for the Imperial forces. The Necron Fleet was led by a pair of Cairn tomb ships which were wreaking havoc among the fleet. (On the surface of the planet) Abyss Gazer Astartes Cremlin looked over the battlefield. He was one of those assigned to watch over Beor while he used his full power. Currently they were waiting for permission from the Chapter Master while the Abyss Gazers fought alongside the Angels of Rebirth and Ashen Thanes. Secretly Brother Cremlin envied them, a pair of chapters with a long and glorious history's. The Inquisition lined up to request their aid rather than subject them to regular and strict investigations. Yet seeing them fight alongside each other Cremlin was astonished by the similarities of the two chapters. Both fought to get into close combat with the enemy and both fought with a barely restrained fury rarely seen among the Abyss Gazers. Even their Colors were similar, red and black versus red and grey. The only real difference is where the Ashen Thanes had a 'rough and ready' look to them, many of the Angels of Rebirth's weapons and armor were both pristine and extraordinarily well crafted. As he watched, a sudden tall figure stood among the midst of the Necron Ranks and held aloft a green orb. Suddenly a bright flash of light emanated from the Orb and all of the fallen Necrons within nearly 70 meters arose with astonishing swiftness, damage smoothing from the Necrodermis. This caused havoc in the front lines as many of those raised were in the midst of the fore most fighters. In response the voice of the Chapter Master came over the Vox, "permission granted for Beor, password Alpha-Arctic-Heliosen-Dorn. Destroy that Necron at all costs, if we don't he'll just keep raising his troops!" Hearing the proper codes Cremlin turned to Beor. "We've got a go on release restraints Beor," he told him as well as his Battle Brother Kilick. "Got it," Beor said as he took off his eye patch. The instant Beor's eye was uncovered a shock wave seemed to emanate from him. While many of the other Astartes flinched as it passed over them, Cremlin and his fellow Abyss Gazers were unaffected. Once he was sure Beor could hear him he shouted (despite him being only 3 feet away) instructions. "Target the Necron holding the green orb!" He bellowed. Beor said nothing, by his own admission he wasn't very lucid in this state. "I Repeat, destroy the Necron Holding the Green Orb!" Cremlin repeated. This time Beor seemed to hear him, he raised out a hand towards the Necron before frowning. "Somethings wrong, he's cheating." Beor said sounding very much like an upset child. "Somethings wrong with this place, I can't touch him." "Well what's the damned point of you being like this if you can't do anything?!" Brother Kilick shouted. Beor let out one of his disquieting laughs. "Just because I can't touch him doesn't mean I can't touch anything." Beor told them, a hint of madness in his voice. "Watch this," he said looking sky wards. (In Orbit of the Planet) Lieutenant Luithain had just realized that the Imperial Forces were losing when she noticed something odd. A small Torpedo fired by a destroyer suddenly changed course by nearly 90 degrees and started to steak towards the planet with what looked like some form of protective bubble forming around it. (on the Surface) Just as Brother Cremlin was starting to think that Beor had gone mad he noticed a light streaking down from the sky. With extraordinary speed the hijacked Torpedo rocketed down into the middle of the Necron forces right on top of the Necron Lord, exploding in an enormous ball of plasma that consumed everything within 50 meters of the Impact. With the destruction of the Necron Lord something seemed to go out of the Necron Soldiers. They seemed more clumsy, and less aggressive. As the newly emboldened Astartes began to counter the Necron push and drive them back Brother Cremlin looked towards Beor to congratulate him only for the Psyker to fall to the ground and start thrashing around. "What's wro-" Cremlin started to say. "It's coming, it heard me!" Beor cut him off. He seemed to be covering his eyes as if he was afraid of what he would see. "Beor, what's coming?" Brother Kilick yelled in concern, random bits of warp lightning and arcane fire were erupting around him, for the moment kept at bay by the Abyss Gazers anti psychic aura. "How can we help?" "I'm too...open...need eye patch," Beor gasped. Kilick grabbed Beor to stop his thrashing while Cremlin seized the fallen eye patch at replaced it over Beor's eye. At once Beor stopped struggling and instead vomited. Once he stopped he gasped a bit to catch his breath and spoke to the two Astartes. "My thanks, something was trying to... invade my mind while I was vulnerable." Beor told them. "It felt familier, I think. I think it was the Lord of Change I fought aboard the strike cruiser during the jump that took a thousand years." As he spoke Chapter Master Arthan came over the vox. "Report Brother Cremlin, is something wrong?" "Beor ran into some trouble sir," Brother Cremlin replied. "We can talk about it in greater detail later but I don't think Beor can operate at Alpha level for this battle." "Roger that," Arthan replied, "We'll take what we can get as apparently we won't be getting much support from on high. Apparently things are going poorly in orbit." (In Orbit of the Tomb World Things were going disastrously in space. The battle fleet had lost 6 vessels in the last 10 minutes and the Astartes weren't better off. Lieutenant Luithain was praying to the God-Emperor for any sort of salvation, unaware that not too far away, Admiral Hador and Lord Harbinger Koios were doing the same. A spark of hope flickered into being as several Warp rifts started forming signaling that something was about to arrive. The spark of hope erupted into a flame as not only the remainder of the battlefleet emerged into realspace, but the remainder of the Ashen Thanes Fleet, as well as reinforcements from the Mechanicus including a Ark Mechanicus. As soon as the reinforcements exited the warp they immediately went to the aid of the fleet. Luithain could see what looked like drop pods firing out of the Ashen Thanes Battle Barge towards the planet beneath. Te Ark Mechanicus unleashed a salvo of strange and bewildering weaponry, from arcs of lightning to machine gun streams of plasma onto the Necron vessels. Even as the Necron ships turned to face this new threat, the fleet struck back with renewed fury. Streak of light emitted from the Abyss Gazers Unchanging Fortress and struck one of the Cairn Tomb Ship midsection, the shot from the Dominus cannon nearly blowing the ship in half. Like predators descending on a wounded animal, Cruisers and Destroyers launched a powerful salvo upon the damaged Tomb Ship finishing it off. Once it was destroyed the remaining Necron ships did something that none of the Imperial or Eldar forces had ever seen them do; retreat. Using their strange Arcane technology the remaining Necron vessels jumped out of the system rather than face the Reinforced Imperial fleet. (On the surface) With control of the skies, the battle on the ground was much easier. Thunderhawks and Eldar crafts provided bombing and strafing runs, Ashen Thane's Drop pods smashed apart Necron formations, spilling out the Astartes within who fought Necrons and dodged the emerald blasts like it was natural, and leading the charge was the King (Chapter Master) of the Ashen Thanes himself, Dorwin Felomin. Faster than with any other of the Tomb Worlds the Imperial Forces advanced. Many of the Necrons teleporting out of battle like they were abandoning the planet. Within an hour they had destroyed the Tomb World but not all was well. While many of the soldiers were greatly encouraged by the ease with which they beat the Necrons, many officers were unnerved by it. Up above, in the same conference room they started in on the Unchanging Fortress, the many officers and commanders gathered to welcome the Mechanicus and Ashen Thanes and to discuss the strategy for the final Tomb World. Currently they were looking over the list of Causalities; 60 Astartes from various chapters, somewhere near 3,000,000 Guardsmen from the Astra Militarum, and at least 400 tanks and light vehicles. Least hit were the Void ships and Knights with only 10% of their fleet out of action and only 5 knights disabled or destroyed. Now, from what their Eldar allies told them, they would be facing that many casualties over again, possibly twice. The Crown Tomb World had easily twice the defenses of even the Core Worlds and unlike the others, the only way to disable their defenses would be to take out it's Overlord, or the Phareon if he was still in control. Given how no one in the Imperium had yet even a Necron Overlord this was a daunting challenge. Worst of all, unlike the other Tomb Worlds they had destroyed, this one had an orbiting moon, filled with all sorts of anti-voidcraft weaponry.. "We can destroy the moon," the Eldar ambassador said, "but to do so means we wont be able to use the Song of Destruction on the Tomb World." He was refering to the strange weapon used to destroy the Tomb Worlds. "No matter," Koios told him, "We have weapons enough to destroy a world if need be. I made sure on the outset of the crusade that we had several stage 2 Cyclonic Torpedoes. One good hit from one of those and it will shake the planet to rubble." "It doesn't matter how much firepower we have if the planets defenses remain active." King Dorwin of the Ashen Thanes put in. "Right," Koios agreed, "It will take our greatest fighters to take down the Necron Overlord. We will need to get a group of our best fighters, preferably Astartes and Psykers, to destroy this Overlord." Beor looked up but Koios shot him down before he could speak. "No not you Beor. I know that you're the most powerful psyker we have but I fear that with our using you for 2 of the Core Worlds just means that they will be waiting for you. I wouldn't be surprised if they had a counter waiting for you." He shook his head, "No I can serve as warrior and psyker both, so I'll lead the execution force. Chapter Master Arthan was injured in the battle, he shall lead the combined fleet in my stead. Who else will join me in this?" Dorwin of the Ashen Thanes stood, "I will join you in this glory, if we both bring our honor guards that should make a force strong enough to deal with any Necron bastard." He said. Koios smiled this was not the first time he had served alongside King Dorwin and his Ashen Thanes. "We will need more psychic power than can be provided by me I think," Koios admitted. He turned to the Eldar Ambassador, "Will any of you Eldar be joining us? These are your ancient enemies after all." The Eldar ambassador didn't look worried by the challenge. "Farseer Lokan will join you if you are serious, as well as a bodyguard," the Eldar replied. "It is likely however, with our success with the other Tomb Worlds the Pharon may well have left already. From what our records show, this is only a minor series of Tomb Worlds as a sort of second dynasty he controls. He has likely fled to his home dynasty." "All right," Koios said. He turned to the Holo display of the Tomb World. "Once the Eldar Craftworld has dealt with the moon we will try to land here," he pointed at the display and certain sections lit up. "This is as close to the Capital of the Tomb World as we can safely land, roughly 45 km south, where these mountains will hopefully give us cover. From there we shall have to fight our way to the capital, and the Necrons won't give it up without a fight. Once we get within a few kilometers of the capital," the city lit up. Me and our selected execution force will split from the main force and try and sneak our way into the city to find the Necron Overlord with the help of the Eldar. Once we destroy the Overlord, it shall break down the nodal command of the Necrons." A second holo vid lit up, projecting the image of a Necron staff. "Apparently the only way to at least weaken the defenses is to find use the Overlords own Staff of Light. Once we do that, we'll immediatly withdraw and fire upon the planet with 2 stage cyclonic torpedoes destroying it." Chapter Master Makil laughed, "you make it sound so simple. Well the sooner we get there the sooner we can start dying." "Very well," Koios sighed, "everyone back to your ships. Prepare for the final warp jump."Category:Wars Category:History